New student group to contest KSU elections

A group of students, InTouch, have put themselves forward as candidates for the upcoming University Students' Council (KSU) election, which will be contested for the first time in five years.

Addressing a meeting on the university campus yesterday, Matthew Tabone, a fourth-year law student, took the opportunity, in launching the team, to raise awareness about the fact that every student was eligible to vote in the election and was encouraged to do so.

It was not yet known when the election will be held but it was likely to be in the coming weeks, said Mr Tabone, adding that there was a whole generation of students who did not know they could vote.

Mr Tabone, who is a candidate for the position of president, is one of nine other students from various backgrounds, courses and campuses who are contesting the elections with the group. Standing with InTouch, which is not aligned to any political party, are students who have been elected to the KSU executive in the past and have been involved in various student organisations.

"We want students to see KSU not as a waste of time, but as a way to change their lives at university," Mr Tabone said.

"We believe there is a real and urgent need for every student to begin to feel part of KSU and its structures - whether they're from a course based at university, the Institute of Health Care, the Medical School, Junior College or the Bighi Centre for Art Restoration."

Listing the issues that really mattered, Mr Tabone mentioned graduate unemployment, saying that the plan was to put pressure on the authorities and push for changes to the current system, making sure every student knows exactly what to expect when they graduate before they choose their subjects.

As regards students' rights, he questioned how many students were aware of the student charter that contained a list of rights and obligations afforded to them, as well as the obligations the university was bound to follow.

The university body set up to oversee the charter's implementation needed to be reformed to guarantee that the rights of university students were being respected, Mr Tabone said.

He also maintained that there was a need for greater investment in the university. Since the government-commissioned Chalmers Report of 2004, which claimed that the university was under-funded and overcrowded, there have been few changes to rectify the situation, he said.

"We will not accept a situation where 200 students are allotted a lecture room that only holds 100."

He believed the council should eventually evolve into, or help with the creation of a national student union, creating a body that would represent every student at a post-secondary level, including the 7,000 at the Malta College for the Arts, Science and Technology, those at the Institute for Tourism Studies, every sixth form, as well as students of art, music, drama and dance, who were in dire need of adequate representation.

KSU should also have a place on the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development while an urgent need for student representation on university boards was also felt.

InTouch also maintained there was a need to reform the role of the university ombudsman and increase his powers.

Parking was another issue that students faced on a daily basis. Admittedly, KSU could not build the required multi-storey car park, but it could push for more car sharing, increased efficiency of public transport and more routes to the university, and more parking spaces.